Mohamed Fizazi

Mohamed Fizazi (1949-) was a Moroccan Sunni imam who preached in Morocco and Europe (including the al-Quds Mosque in Hamburg, Germany). Fizazi was arrested in 2003 in connection with radicalizing the youths who took part in the 2003 Casablanca bombings and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but he was pardoned in 2011 and released.

Biography
Mohamed Fizazi was born in 1949 in a village near Taza, Morocco to a Sunni Muslim family. He was taught at an Islamic school in Rabat, and in 1970 he became a French and mathematics teacher in Tangier. Later, he began to preach at a mosque in Casa Barata, and in 1980 he began to study Islamic jurisprudence at al-Karaouine University in Fez. Fizazi was granted a Master's Degree in Hadith Sciences from al-Karaouine, and he criticized Abdessalam Yassine and his followers as paid satellites of Saudi Arabia. He flew to Europe and gave sermons at the al-Quds Mosque there, radicalizing several Muslims there. In 1999, he visited al-Qaeda-linked preacher Abu Qatada in London, United Kingdom, and Fizazi held radio debates that earned him the attention of several conservative clerics. In 2003, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for radicalizing the participants in the 2003 Casablanca bombings of 16 May 2003, but he was released due to a royal pardon on 14 April 2011. He revised his teachings and had a more moderate approach, speaking out against the Islamic State and other extremist groups.